Billionaire clothing dynasty heiress launches Everybody & Everyone to make fashion sustainable
For Chou, an understanding of the environmental toll that the family business was handling the planet began six years back– a couple of years prior to Iconix Brand Group got the China subsidiary she had actually co-founded with her father in a transaction supposedly worth $56 million.
The business’s attention to its environmental impact also encompasses its supply chain. “Most of our fabrics are knit close to where our garments are manufactured. That is absolutely reducing our carbon footprint,” says Chou. “I put an emphasis on having factories in America … our denim is produced in America and in the future we’re taking a look at t-shirts and sports to be produced in America.”
The brand-new brand, which offers women’s clothing for each size from 00 to 24 and at rates varying from $18 to $288 (most fall in the $50 to $150 variety, provided a fast scroll through the business’s brand-new website) partners with companies like Naadam and Ecoalf for sustainable cashmere and recycled fabrics made from plastic.
Image thanks to World Resources Institute
And her daddy, Silas Chou, made millions as an investor in Michael Kors and Tommy Hilfiger. As an executive at Iconix Brand Group China, Veronica Chou contributed in the acceleration of the industry– bringing American brand names to Chinese consumers. Chou also served as the co-founder of the Beijing-based private equity fund China Consumer Capital and as a director of Karl Lagerfeld Greater China.
Veronica Chou’s family has actually made its fortune at the leading edge of the fast fashion industry through financial investments in companies like Michael Kors and Tommy Hilfiger. But now, the heiress toan approximated $2.1 billion fortune is launching her own business, Everybody & Everyone, to prove that the fashion business can be both environmentally sustainable and lucrative. There’s no argument about the negative impacts
Everybody & & Everyone uses the lessons that Chou has learnt more about sustainability to a new style brand name that she hopes can serve as a design for how to weave sustainability into every element of the industry.
“It was 6 years ago I began finding out about sustainability and five years ago that I said that I needed to have a sustainable brand name,” states Chou.
It was around the time that Chou had her kids, she states, that she realized the importance of making a brand that was both environmentally sustainable and inclusive.
Some clothing are also made with materials that have actually recycled silver in them– so that the clothing can be worn numerous times without smelling or the requirement for a wash.
Digital printing is used in location of screens to avoid heaps of water waste, the business stated, and numerous of the business’s materials are not dyed at all. rather, the business counts on an upcycling process by separating recycled fibers mechanically by color.
Everybody & & Everyone has also partnered with the organization One Tree Planted to plant a tree for each purchase that’s made with the company. In addition, the business has computed its carbon footprint from all of its pre-launch activities and has actually purchased and retired offsets to balance its emissions, Chou states.
of the fashion business on the environment. The fabrics market mainly utilizes non-renewable
resources– on the order of 98 million lots per year. That includes the oil to make synthetic fibers, fertilizers to grow cotton and harmful chemicals to dye, deal with and produce the textiles utilized to make clothes. The greenhouse gas footprint from textiles production was roughly 1.2 billion lots of CO2 equivalent in 2015– more than all international flights and maritime deliveries integrated(and a great deal of those maritime shipments and worldwide flights were carrying clothing). The list of disasters that can be attributed to the clothes industry extends to contamination, as
“I began building Everybody & & Everyone from the ground-up, first by getting the finest team in location then by discovering the ideal suppliers, partners and makers who were already making strides in the sustainability area,” Chou said in a declaration. “I desired this brand to be for every lady, so body sustainability, inclusivity and positivity were going to be the foundation of everything we did. We then built the brand names sustainable & & technical pillars, which consist of activation, recycled, dyeing & & printing, naturals done much better, bio-based fibers and end usage to ensure our products would lessen unfavorable effects. We are sustainable to the labels sewn into each garment.”
As the fashion organisation has expanded, so has the wealth of the Chou family. South Ocean Knitters, the knitwear producer started by Chou’s grandpa, was accountable for among the first foreign investments into mainland China in 1974. It is now one of the biggest providers of knitwear on the planet, and, together with the Hong Kong producer Li & & Fung, is behind the Cobalt Fashion Holding conglomerate.
Since that discovery, Chou dove into the world of sustainable production head-first. Through her household’s investment lorries she has actually worked with companies like Modern Meadow, which uses bio-engineering to make leather products in a lab. Chou has likewise led financial investments in Thousand Fell, a soon-to-launch producer of completely recyclable shoes; Dirty Labs, which is establishing more sustainable laundry cleaning items; and Carbon Engineering, which is developing a direct air capture technology for carbon dioxide.
“For our brand name, recycled is a huge story for us,” says Chou. “Our t-shirts, our socks, our packaging, our mailers, our labels, our sticker labels are all made from recycled materials that can be recycled again.”
well. About 20 %of commercial water pollution internationally can be traced to the dyeing and treatment of textiles– and microplastics from polyester, acrylic and nylon are contaminating the world’s oceans. The increase of fast fashion has actually motivated customers to accelerate waste. Approximately one garbage truck loaded with clothes is landfilled around the world every 2nd, according to a 2017 report from the Ellen MacArthur Foundation. That implies consumers are getting rid of around $400 billion worth of valuable goods every year as low costs and more “seasons” produce an illusion of disposability.
Veronica Chou’s family has made household has actually at the forefront of the leading edge fashion business through investments in companies financial investments Michael Kors and Tommy Hilfiger. And her daddy, Silas Chou, made millions as an investor in Michael Kors and Tommy Hilfiger. As an executive at Iconix Brand Group China, Veronica Chou played a function in the velocity of the industry– bringing American brands to Chinese customers. Since that revelation, Chou dove into the world of sustainable production head-first.”For our brand, recycled is a big story for us,” states Chou.